Seetimaarr Movie Review: A regular action film where Kabaddi feels like an afterthought

Title: Seetimaarr

Cast: Gopichand, Tamannaah Bhatia and others

Director: Sampath Nandi

Rating: 2.5/5

In real life, an individual faced with the challenge of reviving a dying school is least likely to take the route of becoming a sports coach to realize his mission. And if he indeed takes up such a rare task, he would justifiably become a demigod in no time. In 'Seetimaarr', though, just one extraordinary undertaking is not enough to enable Karthik (Gopichand) to claim his spot at the high table of mass-masala heroism. He has to also finish off the cruellest villains who come to know of his existence just in time ahead of the National Kabaddi Championship. 

The multi-talented coach has to single-handedly pulverize a gang for committing a crime that would have resulted in an emergency phone call between the AP Chief Minister and the Prime Minister in real life, with the 24/7 media constantly on its toes to cover every single development. But this is a Sampath Nandi film where the hero, otherwise flanked by two beautiful ladies (Tamannaah Bhatia coaches the Telangana team in between feeling sorry that Karthik is not her boyfriend, while Digangana Suryavanshi is a TV journo doubling up as his fangirl), has to do everything by himself. The maximum others can do is wail, thump the table in exasperation, or, better still, just clap sitting in front of a TV set.

What are the villains like? They rule Ghaziabad with an iron fist but employ the kind of henchmen who don't get suspicious when every single individual in their captivity wants to urinate at the same time. One of them keeps screaming on the phone at the top of his voice. On cue, Mani Sharma's BGM outcompetes him, especially in the second half. The Ghaziabadi villains become the perfect backdrop for outmoded visual flavour and stock background scores. 

What is the heroism like? It is a mixed package. If Karthik doesn't become the saviour when his female players are eve-teased, his heroism turns dreary in the second half. 

Tamannaah, who is described as a love child of flowers and milk by a character, is always tagged along by her team members, who uniformly become mean-spirited for a while. The tagging along is so common in Gopichand's team as well. So much so, if the girls are not seen with him, some or the other character gets worried and asks, "Where is your team?" 

'Seetimaarr' is the kind of film where, if the good-hearted ones have a hearty laugh for 1 or 1.5 minutes at a stretch, we have to suspect that some bad thing is going to happen to them. But this doesn't apply to the songs, where you can be assured of no danger knocking on their doors for up to three minutes at least. As songs go, 'Jwala Reddy' is superbly picturized, while 'Pepsi Aunty' is underwhelming. 

When Karthik misses celebrating Rakhi with his sister (played by Bhumika Chawla), you might start wondering that the latter might die soon (remember, this is a template-driven showreel of formula and more formula). The first half, despite its flaws, makes us expect an engaging second half. Even Rao Ramesh's unscrupulous businessman character keeps our hopes alive. However, 'Seetimaarr' loses the match in the second half, mainly due to the antiquated good-cop-bad-cop farce as well as the raucous action set-pieces. 

Not many these days are patient enough to sit through a 138-minute action film where a sporting coach is into pulverizing the thugs rather than building up a team of champions. 'Seetimaarr' plays some lip service to female empowerment before showing girls from the rival teams in a very caricaturish manner. Enough said. 

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Check out the movie trailer below: